France's new generation takes centre stage

Two goals from Karim Benzema and a third of his making confirmed that France, this year, has a center-forward in the mood to strike. Antoine Griezmann’s roaming presence on the left flank confirmed that the team has a good substitute for the injured and absent Franck Ribéry. Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Valbuena confirmed that they can offer creative midfield play without a pure number 10 à la Zidane. Most crucially, the 3-0 win yesterday in Porto Alegre, against a pugnacious but overmatched Honduras reduced to 10 men for the second half, confirmed that France will not, this year, completely embarrass itself.

A good start. Now, it’s finally time to throw out that narrative and focus on the football on the field. France’s generational renewal has arrived, and a new squad with only the smallest vestiges of the disastrous 2010 campaign, bearing far less of its psychological burden than the media have made of it, is producing its own body of work.

The new team has its own rough edges to sand down: see Paul Pogba nearly catching a red card for retaliation after Wilson Palacios trampled him. It has its own potential to reach: see the same Pogba, as he grows into the midfield all-rounder for France that he has become for Juventus. Even the last remaining conspirator in the 2010 mutiny against then-manager Raymond Domenech has morphed from malcontent to veteran asset. Patrice Evra’s crosses are less than perfect (as Manchester United supporters know) and his defense is vulnerable to young, zippy wingers, but he has his teammates’ respect and coach Didier Deschamps’s praise. But really, for Griezmann, Pogba, Raphaël Varane, Mathieu Debuchy, Blaise Matuidi, and most of their pals in new-look France’s deep-navy kit, what happened in South Africa is irrelevant.

In this context the absence of Samir Nasri and Ribéry, superstars for their clubs but tough pieces to fit into the national side, can only be a good thing. Not just to ward off bad energy, but to make space for the new system to find itself. France remains loyal to its football approach that goes back to the great Michel Hidalgo-coached sides of the 1980s: tall central defense, attacking full-backs who overlap and roam high, emphasis on control and development, and forwards less memorable than the creative midfielders who conceive the attack and often complete it themselves.

But the Zidane era distorted the model, with so much reliance – rightly, given his genius – on one player. After Zizou’s retirement, the absence of a “pure 10” was glaring: no one player could mimic it, and the committee approach wasn’t working. Now, with Pogba, Cabaye and the tireless Matuidi running the middle, and the devilish Valbuena as a midfield/right-wing hybrid, a group is in place that allies reliability and imagination. Meanwhile, if you include his strike that got counted as an own-goal by the Honduran keeper, Benzema has scored in one match as many goals as any France striker at the World Cup since 1958.

French television commentary yesterday, and sports talk radio after the match, remained pulled in conflicting directions of optimism, wariness, and relief that nothing disgraceful happened against an obviously inferior opponent. The temptation to wallow in the past is still palpable, but it’s fading. The team’s sense of fun and lack of apparent internal drama are evident. Small but symbolic decisions, such as the choice to base the team this year at an anonymous hotel along a highway in the provincial town of Ribeirão Preto – a pointed contrast to the luxury resort setting of Knysna, which underscored the palace intrigue and spoiled-little-princes vibe of the 2010 unraveling – have earned it points.

Next up is a match against Switzerland on Friday in Salvador to secure first place in the group. When France and Switzerland met in the group stage at the 2006 World Cup, they produced one of the most soporific 0-0 draws in football history. It’s another low bar to clear, but improving on that tedious display will count as another small milestone. One by one the new Bleus are dismissing the ghosts, and the action is back on the field.